Conspiracy theories haunt Dallas 50 years after JFK's death

Fifty years after President John F. Kennedy was killed, people still visit Dealey Plaza in Dallas, looking for answers. (Source: CNN)

DALLAS (CNN) - Friday, Nov. 22, marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F.. Kennedy in Dallas.

Years later, people still come every day, point to the sixth floor window, stand on the grassy knoll, imagining what that day was like; President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy driving by, smiling.

Visitors look down from the school book depository building, imagining what Lee Harvey Oswald saw; the moment gunfire exploded, the piercing echo through Dealey Plaza.

"Does it amaze me that people come to Dealey Plaza 24/7, scratching their heads and pointing and walking around? No, not at all. The Kennedy assassination story is modern folklore now," said Gary Mack, curator of the 6th Floor Museum. "People just aren't satisfied with the official story that one man did all that damage, not only to a person but to a country and to the world."

The official story, of course, is that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.

Ronald Jones was one of the emergency room doctors who tried to save Kennedy and vividly remembers the chaotic moments in the packed operating room of Parkland Hospital.

"We knew we were working on the President, we were anxious, we were excited, we were doing what we would do in the care of a normal trauma patient. And yet here was the President of The United States, nobody knew he was dead," he said.

Jones says the first thing he noticed was a wound on the president's neck.

"Initial impression was that this is an entrance wound and this is an exit wound up here," he said. "We had no information as to how he was shot, with what was he shot, who shot him, we had no information whatsoever, we had not seen the Zapruder film."

Later, the Warren Commission report would determine that neck wound was where the so-called "magic bullet" exited Kennedy's body, before striking Texas Governor John Connally.

"This could have been an entrance wound or an exit wound and I don't know if anything will ever come up, it's been 50 years and nothing has surfaced yet that would indicate there was a second shooter," he said. "Certainly that possibility exists, but right now I would accept the Warren Commission report."

To conspiracy theorists like Robert Groden, the "single bullet theory" is one of many problems with the official story.

"It's a fairy tale. It didn't happen. No bullet went through both men," said Groden.

Groden grew up in New York and moved to Dallas almost 20 years ago, and proving the Kennedy assassination conspiracy is his life's mission.

You can find him on the grassy knoll every weekend arguing his case, and he says no one he encounters thinks he is crazy for his theories.

"I believe there was an amalgamation between the mob and elements within the CIA," Groden said. He also believes the mob was involved as well.

That is the legacy that still hangs over Dealey Plaza, one of the most tragic events of the 20th century, still shrouded for many in mystery.